I'm back in Brazil the state of Rio De Janeiro in Buzios and I'm very happy to be here! I'm spending 3 weeks with my Brazilian family and once again enjoying all that this amazing country has to offer. As normal, like clockwork, despite my best efforts, I'm getting a little burnt despite using factor 50 and a Panama hat. The short sleeve t-shirts are on and flip flops and swimming togs are the order of the day. Scarfs and gloves and such items are non existent and if you showed them to the locals they probably wouldn't know what to do with them.
Buzios is a very special place. It's rare to hear non Brazilian's talk about it and I have a funny feeling the locals are trying to keep it as much of a secret as possible and rightly so. It is a lush peninsula eight kilometers long with 23 beaches of all different shapes and sizes. Yes, you heard it right. 23. It is about a 2.5 hour drive from the city of Rio and it's well worth the effort to get here. It's one of those local gems that most tourists either don't know about or decide to ignore because they want to focus on the city of Rio.
So far I've been to 3 of the beaches and what stands out to me are some of the dunes they have, which they rent skiing equipment to skillfully slide down and also the fact that the water is kind of cold and fresh water rather than very salty and warm like I'm used to when swimming here.
Buzios is a very special place. It's rare to hear non Brazilian's talk about it and I have a funny feeling the locals are trying to keep it as much of a secret as possible and rightly so. It is a lush peninsula eight kilometers long with 23 beaches of all different shapes and sizes. Yes, you heard it right. 23. It is about a 2.5 hour drive from the city of Rio and it's well worth the effort to get here. It's one of those local gems that most tourists either don't know about or decide to ignore because they want to focus on the city of Rio.
So far I've been to 3 of the beaches and what stands out to me are some of the dunes they have, which they rent skiing equipment to skillfully slide down and also the fact that the water is kind of cold and fresh water rather than very salty and warm like I'm used to when swimming here.
For me swimming in Waterford conjures up names such as the Guillemene, Newtown Cove, Dunmore East, etc, down here the names of the beaches or completely different: Geribá, John Fernandes, Horseshoe, Ferradurinha and Manguinhos. Beach life is central to being Brazilian and central to the Christmas and New Year holidays. The Brazilians in their droves leave their cities and head for their coastline which is a massive 7000 kilometres long. Buzios is one of the country's favourite destinations, especially since Bridget Bardot the famous French actress came here in 1964 and revealed to the world the beauties the then small sleepy tropical fishing village had which is now a booming tourist destination which has 28,000 annual inhabitants that swell to 200,000 this time of the year with tons of jeeps, buggies and bicycles criss crossing around the peninsula from beach to beach.
Click here to see some images of what's on offer to get a better sense what I'm talking about.
Like many of the urban Brazilians I left the city to come to the beach. In my case Camila's family and I left the chaotic ugly metropolis of Sao Paolo's and its 20 million + inhabitants to get to Rio. We took a one hour plane ride from Sao Paolo to Rio and then got a private bus to bring us here. I'm travelling with Fausto, Camila's brother and his son Victor Gabriel, Carolina, Camila's sister and her fiancee Rodrigeo and we also are with the energetic Cidinha who is Camila's gregarious mother. My brain has switched into Portuguese mode and with the exception of Cidinha who has no English, we are also chatting in English as rest of the group are very eager to practice while I'm here.
Like all my other visits to Brazil the trip has been a continuous education and adventure rolled into one. These days i've coined a new term for it "Edu-ventures". It started with Christmas preparations as we arrived on the 23rd of December. The trip to get here wasn't the best. We were hit with a security guard strike in Paris which meant we had a 12 hour delay in our flight. When we got here, my sister in law's car broke down in the busiest road in Sao Paolo, and when I mean busy think of a 5 lane motorway that is 30 km's long and which has huge heavy lorries laden down with oranges, tiles, piping, electronics, etc and thousands of cars and motor bikes zipping by belching out smoke from exhausts and constantly beeping as they jockey for position. Carolina's car broke down in the middle of all this and it sat still bang in the middle lane for 5 minutes before we got some help from some of the other drivers on the road who helped us push it to the side before we got it going again. It was interesting to see the truck drivers were the ones who helped and with military position started to direct the traffic behind us as some of the others who had stopped help push the car.
Christmas is celebrated at midnight Christmas eve in Brazil. Christmas day is not like ours in Ireland and is mostly for the first half used to recover from the night before. They have a meal at about 10.30pm and for us consisted of Turkey, Pork, carrots, salad, rice and potatoes and an assortment of fruit for starters and desert. Presents are given out at midnight and then cousins, aunts, uncles and friends start visiting from 12.30am to around 2.30am. Most people are in bed in Ireland when the Brazilians are only getting going. As normal, a lot happens in Brazil in what they call the "madrugada" hours which are from 12 to 4am.
It was great to experience Christmas in hot weather, this is only the 2nd time I've been away from home. The last one being in 2004 when I was in Thailand when the infamous tsunami hit. It was great to be in shorts and t-shirt and getting a chance to get away from the Irish weather for a short time to get some heat and light. For me the light is as probably more important in terms of satisfaction rather then the heat. Like Ireland there is something magical about a blue sky, a wide azure blue sky, that makes people smile, sing and dance. We didn't have it all our own way, but the times when the sky was blue and the sun bombarded us with its rays of golden sunshine and shot darting shadows all around us when the odd cloud in the sky blocked its view were delightful to watch. As ever I was very appreciative of it having come from a rainy few days in Waterford and Dublin. It was worth the airfare alone.
It's the 1st of Jan and I'm being called to go to lunch so I better go. Let's see what 2012 has to throw up, I hope it goes well for you and yours. I'm going to get a glass of pineapple juice or"abacaxi" as they call it by their local indian translation and ponder on what lessons 2011 had to reveal which I will bring with me into 2012 as we look to some new objectives and goals I hope to reach.
Feliz Ano Novo! Happy New Year.
